Because it’s not Real Italian Food.
It’s a bastardized hybrid Italian/American mix!!
:)
I ate Italian food until I moved out of mom’s house way back.
That’s lentils and other beans and veggies and a little bit of meat and even the heavier dishes were NOTHING compared to the restaurant dishes.
There are no cheese smothered platters in Italy, no thick crust pizza, no tons of salt...we even drown out the healthy eggplant with cheese and salt in America!
and it’s destroyed my weight.
But God it’s so tasty!!! :)
But I bet they were real glad when the Spaniards brought tomatoes back from the new world. Momma Mia! I do love me a good red sauce.
But yea, it makes sense. It’s not like Europe had any cattle ranches the size of, well, Texas, raising millions of head of cattle Every year. So they had to stretch the proteins out and made do with what grew handy.
Hell, even real Mexican food isn’t what most yanks think it is.
And I do love the bastardized Italian food. But good lord, what a restaurant serves, feeds me for a week. Always to-go boxes for after.